Steering wheel



P 24, 1929- H. J. SEWELL ET AL 1,729,016

STEERING WHEEL Filed Feb. 17, 1928 INVENTORS,

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Patented Sept. 24, 1 929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HERBERT J. SEWELL AND VALENTINE Y. TALLBERG, F DETROIT, MICHIGAN STEERING WHEEL Application filed February 17, 1928. Serial No. 254,972.

This invention relates to the construction of steering wheels for automobiles, and its object is to provide a wheel of this character which can be constructed at low cost, which will be light, and which will have maximum strength.

The wheel forming the subject matter of this invention is turned from a blank consisting of a series of layers of wood glued to- 10 gether, the grains of the wood of adjacent layers being at an angle to each other, and preferably at acute angles, so that the maximum strength of the wood may be utilized, the blank being turned to constitute a hub, a comparatively thin web and a rim, the spokes then being produced by cutting substantially quadrant-shaped sectors from the web. The invention consists of the details of construction illustrated in the accompanying drawing and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawing, Fig. 1, is a view of a part of a wheel blank, the layers being broken away for the sake of clearness. Fig. 2, is a central section of this improved wheel. Fig. 3, is a plan of the wheel on a reduced scale.

Similar reference characters refer to like parts throughout the several views.

The blank from which the wheel is formed may be formed by gluing together layers 1 to 8 inclusive, the grain of each layer being preferably at an acute angle to the grain of the next adjacent layers although this particular order need not be followed. The ob ject of this is to secure the greatest possible strength for the rim throughout by positioning the several layers in reference to the grain of the wood that a maximum amount of the wood will have its grain as nearly tangential to the rim as possible. This is brought out by Fig. 1, which shows five layers of wood. It is evident that it is desirable to have the circle divided by diameters into twice as many parts as there are layers constituting the rim, and to so position the layers relative to each ,other that the grain of each piece will be parallel to one of these diameters. With four layers, the angle between the diameters will be forty-five degrees and a rim of great strength will result therefrom.

After the blank has been thus produced, it is turned to form the hub 10, the dished web 11 and the rim 12, after which sectors are sawed from the web to form the dished spokes 13. The hub 10 may be reinforced if desired. Any desired finish may be applied to give the wood any desired color or finish.

While the crossing of the grain of the layers is especially valuable to produce a strong rim, it is also valuable for the hub and spokes, particularly when the grain of adjacent layers are at acute angles to each other.

We claim The process of producing a steering wheel which consists in cementing sheets of wood together in such a manner that the grain of the sheets will lie parallel to evenly spaced diameters of circles which are as numerous as the sheets and substantially even spaced, turning the blank thus produced to produce a hub, a dished web and a rim, cutting sectors from the web to produce spokes and then finishing.

HERBERT J. SEWELL. VALENTINE Y. TALLBERG. 

